A middle-aged man, Usman Danjuma, was last Thursday arraigned before an Upper Area Court sitting in Karu, Abuja, for allegedly having carnal knowledge of a 12-year-old girl, who hawks bananas, without her consent.

Police prosecutor, Inspector Philip Akugo, told the court that the accused was charged with procuration of a minor girl, which contravenes Section 275 of the Penal Code.

He said on December 10 at about 1400 hours, the girl who resides at Kuruduma village, went to Asokoro Police Station to report that while she was hawking banana along Africa International School, Asokoro, the accused of no fixed address lured her to an uncompleted building, pretending that he wanted to buy banana.

He alleged that in the process of bargaining, Danjuma forcefully closed the girl's mouth, threatened to kill her with a knife and forcefully had sexual intercourse with her without her consent.

The prosecutor said after the victim reported the matter to the police, policemen arrested the accused, who, confessed to committing the offence but denied threatening her with a knife during investigation.

When the charge was read out in court, the accused pleaded not guilty and applied for bail.

Judge Umar Yusuf Kagarko ordered that the accused be brought to court on December 18 to hear his bail application and adjourned the case to February 26, 2013 for hearing.